


The Hidden Path

by Merfilly



Series: Champion of the Force [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 16:31:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6122562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Living Force itself provides a Jedi with a way to survive, Yoda finds a path unseen to follow. Little can he see how this will play out, but it is a better chance than that which he does see.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Naboo

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to ilyena-sylph and the rest of my household and twitter friends for supporting me as I wrote this.

"Knowing this, no one must," Yoda counseled Obi-Wan. "Enemies, seen and unseen. Leave to secret, we shall."

"I can't, Master Yoda!" The words came out in a tortured gasp, and the small Jedi sighed softly.

"Attachments, expressly forbidden. But Qui-Gon Jinn, always a rule to himself, he is." The ancient Jedi was not pleased, but he was also not without a heart. He reached out and pressed a hand along Obi-Wan's temple where the young man knelt. "Secret, it must be. Hide this from you, we must."

Obi-Wan choked back a sob as he realized what Yoda meant to do. "I will lose him, even though he lives?"

"Protect the boy, you wish to do? Honor his wishes, you must. This trial, yours it is."

Obi-Wan knew where his duty was meant to carry him, but he looked one more time to the man that now rested in the deepest of healing trances, induced by this very Master or by the Force's will. "Qui-Gon would expect me to go ahead, but I cannot hide that I know he is alive," he said with defeat in his voice.

"Grieving you must have, to be true to the task at hand." With care, Yoda reached into the Force, and carefully, gently, began blocking from Obi-Wan's mind the events since Qui-Gon had stuttered a breath even as Obi-Wan had prepared his body. The ability of the fallen Jedi to place himself in trance had astounded the young man, and given him a hope that was now to be fruitless. With patient care, Yoda hid the memory, and then, with a sigh for the necessity of it, broke the lifelong bond Master and Padawan had forged, just as death should have done.

Obi-Wan slumped unconscious at the psychic trauma, and Yoda went to see to his preparations. Clouding the future was not something he'd ever expected to have to do, but if Qui-Gon's survival was so willed by the Force, than Yoda would use it as his hidden key to a better future.

Or so he hoped, as the grief of this brave young one pushed at every sense he had. Such sacrifices were necessary, for the better of all, Yoda sternly reinforced to himself.

* * *

To Padmé, though so young, and already burdened with the weight of her people's suffering, fell the care of the man who had fought for her safety. Yoda had measured the moment, and seen that she was crucial to the better future that could emerge from the darkness foreseen.

"Knowing this, none but you, myself, and Master Windu are," Yoda impressed upon her in private counsel. "Healing will be long, I foresee. Keep him hidden, you will do?"

"Master Yoda, the charge you give me is not one I take lightly," she said. "But I do accept it. Cutting his hair and shaving his face will obscure his identity while he heals, and we are masters of concealing identities," she added.

"Yes, yes." Yoda nodded. "Keep him at your side, you will. Difficult on waking, he will be. Trust in you, I have."

"I believe in his dedication to a higher good, Master Yoda. How will I know when it is time for him to take up his duties for you?"

"Meditate, he shall. Tell him this, you will. Then, choose the moment, the Force shall."

"Yes, Master Yoda."

* * *

In the year that the Master Jedi had been in her care, Padmé had been careful to always check on his progress. From the bacta tank, that had allowed his healing, to a simple medical bed, for the purpose of keeping him fed and cared for as the healing trance lasted past the healing of the physical wounds.

That she often spoke of her difficulties in ruling to the unconscious man, after the medics had been dismissed to the monitoring stations, went unremarked upon. Her handmaidens all grew accustomed to holding their private conferences and briefings in the presence of the healing Jedi, feeling, as their Queen did, that his mere presence helped them find the rational paths they needed.

Sabé was the one to note that the longer the healing continued, the more Padmé seemed able to find those uncanny intuitions. It was as if being near a living beacon of the Force was honing the baseline sensitivity she had. This could only be a good thing, Sabé decided, as they struggled to lead their people to recovery.

* * *

Before her morning duties, the medic tending the Jedi had stated the brain activity was increasing. That had led Padmé to discharge her duties as swiftly as possible, and then request Cordé to take her place. She had no wish for the man to wake with merely the medic present. 

She found him still sleeping, but with more stress in the slackened lines of his face. His hair had grown through the year, and she had seen that it was brushed and cared for, braided when it reached an appropriate length to keep it out of the way. She insisted they keep him clean-shaven, as the facial hair had made a distinctive look for him. 

Now, she changed into a simpler gown, and sat beside the bed as the medic removed all of the life support equipment, and waited.

* * *

Consciousness was a curse that Qui-Gon Jinn could not avoid for much longer. Time had no meaning in the suspended state he had been in. His body had been all but renewed, as the Living Force worked its will through him, but that could not protect either his heart or his mind as he rose toward awareness.

There was a jagged, blind pain in his mind, his soul, where there should have been a pulse of youthful energy and warmth. Tears he was unaware of at first trickled from his eyes though they were still shut, and he felt a soft, young hand pick up his.

The presence at his side was solemn, controlled, but familiar in its own way. He made himself confront reality, finding the unpainted face of Padmé at his side. The late blush of youth was slowly settling into more mature lines; it had been a long time it seemed.

"Master Jinn," she said in greeting, but did not remove her hand when he made no move to show it bothered him.

"Obi-Wan?" he asked, his voice a bare whisper from disuse. She almost flinched, having thought he'd ask after Anakin, not having realized how strong the rapport had truly been. After all, Obi-Wan had quietly been disagreeing with Qui-Gon during their association with her. But there was such strong emotion in those words that Padmé was quick to reevaluate her impression of Jedi as being distant in their personal dealings.

"Safe… though I was warned you would think otherwise," she told him, now understanding that part of Master Yoda's instructions better. "I don't think you are ready to have this conversation, Master Jinn. Will you trust in me, as I trusted in you, and wait until you are more able?"

He wanted to deny her that, wanted to demand answers. If Obi-Wan was alive, why was the bond severed? Had Obi-Wan ascended to Knighthood without him to grace it, to take the braid from him? Had Obi-Wan rejected him, and had the healers cut the bond while he was healing?

His heart told him that was impossible, but what other answer was there?

"I will."

He would focus on regaining his strength, feeling how frail his frame was, so that he could have that conversation very soon, though.

* * *

Padmé sat opposite him in her private quarters, as Qui-Gon Jinn sipped the tea she had prepared for them to share. He had questions, and had been forbidden access to the holonet to begin answering them for himself.

"You are disappointed in me for helping you to abide by your promise to wait for me to speak of events when you were well," she said, to break the ice. "I do apologize, but I have had a year to consider the course ahead."

"And?" he pressed, trying for patience and failing. It had taken over a ten-day to reach a point where he could be up and was tolerating a bland, soft diet.

"You recall the battle against the Sith Warrior?"

"Yes," he answered.

"Knight Kenobi believed you to be dead, at the end of the fight. He took possession of your body, to prepare for rites. And during the preparation, you breathed. He sent for Master Yoda, who determined that you had placed yourself in a healing trance so deep as to appear dead. Knight Kenobi just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see and hear your breath."

The use of 'Knight' and the idea that he'd fallen into the almost mythical trance that dropped all functions to effectively nothing both set up counterpoint emotions. He felt pride for his Padawan, and sorrow not to see it for himself. He also felt confusion at managing the trance, with a glimpse that it had not so much been his effort as all of the preparation in his teachings with the Living Force that had opened the way.

"Then?"

Padmé sipped her tea, her presence betraying her roiled emotions. "I do not know the specifics of what was done with Obi-Wan. All I know is that he looked truly in the grip of grief when he appeared at the Rites we held for the dead. No… he did not betray Jedi tenets, but I know grief when I see it masked by duty, Master Jinn," she said swiftly to forestall his objections that Obi-Wan would ever show strong emotion in front of many.

"No."

The woman nodded, then pressed on. "Master Yoda came." She pushed the data pad that had been at her place across the table to him. "This holds his words for you. But what he asked of me was that I keep you safe, keep you hidden, and then… help you." Her fingers touched his as he accepted the device, and he met her eyes. "Master Jinn, I can tell you that Knight Kenobi and his Padawan are still well."

He nodded for that reassurance, and then sat back to listen to the data pad, not barring her from knowing. She had granted him sanctuary; she deserved to know why.

What he heard slowly ignited fires of anger, hotter than he had felt since he was still a very young Padawan. He was to stay hidden until the Force showed him the right time to move? He was to avoid all traces of his own life.

Obi-Wan was to be left believing him to be dead, carrying a severed bond for the rest of his life.

The primal noise that escaped him accompanied the datapad being flung across the room, propelled by his Force-push with enough strength to shatter.

It was the momentary pulse of fear in Padmé that drew him back from the fire, took him away from the edge of the precipice leading to the Dark Side. He put his head in his hands, his heart tearing apart, and wept.

After only a few heartbeats, the young woman rose, moving to stand behind him, hands on his shoulders. She could have given him privacy, but it felt more right to offer him her compassion.

It gave him one more anchor, with his world so adrift.

* * *

The young Queen was beloved by her people, and her handmaidens were fierce in their protection of her. Captain Panaka was loyal, and when he personally chose another bodyguard for her after an attempt on her life, no one questioned where the staff-wielding man came from. None saw his face, covered always like so many bounty hunters and warriors from the Outer Rim, and none heard him speak.

None but the air of his chambers when the torment of his broken bonds and forced waiting pushed him to despair. None but Padmé, or her handmaidens, all of whom refused to let him fall into the pit facing him, keeping his company in the still hours of the night when he could not sleep. His hair grew longer yet as each year passed, and they would braid it for him, telling him soft stories of their world.

Never did Padmé speak of the Republic's doings, or the tales of the Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker. Such words only hurt him more, and she was too kind to be cruel in that manner.


	2. Return to Coruscant

"Jiné," Padmé said softly to her guard early one day after she had accepted the decision of the people to become their Senator. "Is it time?" His name rolled on her tongue with the proper Naboo inflections, and he answered it so readily. It, not that Jedi's name, was who he was now.

Blue eyes blazed over the face covering he wore, and he nodded once. Most of eight years he had waited, though the first had been spent in timeless trance, his body renewing itself, imbued by the Living Force to meet the demands that were to come. His training had been rigorous, his studies deep and long.

"I am to go to Coruscant, then. Rumors of war are growing, and I must be where I can best provide guidance."

"I will be there with you," he said in a rough voice. His heart cried out to the stars, though, for going would mean the chance of seeing the one he longed for most. Would he be forbidden to reveal himself to Obi-Wan? His meditations only spoke of remaining hidden, waiting to strike when the Sith revealed themselves again.

Somehow, he had to reach Yoda, once they were on Coruscant. Then, maybe, he would know more.

He was not Jedi, and yet he was. With his rebirth and the name he'd been given here, he'd become something more, and something less all in one. He could never be whole, though, until he could touch the bond that had been broken.

* * *

Obi-Wan Kenobi cast a look at his Padawan, controlling his annoyance at the younger man's restless energy. The seventeen year old was a teeming mess of nerves.

They had been frequently at odds in the course of their association, but Obi-Wan was fond of him, in the way that was expected. And Anakin did reach out, now and then for guidance on his personal issues.

"I remind you, one more time, that this fixation upon the Senator is dangerous," Obi-Wan said, still regretting that they had been on Coruscant when a need for a security detail from the Temple was transmitted. Although, Obi-Wan was concerned by the fact Yoda himself had changed the mission rosters to keep them available for it. What was the Master thinking?

"Master, I promise not to disgrace myself or bring down dishonor on your hallowed name."

"It's not my name, Padawan, but the Order that you need be mindful of." He then sighed and reached out with the Force to physically still the twitching hands. "Stop. And bear in mind all of the lessons surrounding personal attachments."

"I do, Master." Anakin's eyes sparked with annoyance at being restrained, but he stilled himself at last, just in time for them to hear the approaching Senatorial party.

Padmé was still as regal and poised as he remembered, surrounded by three of her handmaidens. Obi-Wan was certain he was looking at the correct woman, though. However, the very tall, fully clothed and covered man was striking hard on all of Obi-Wan's senses… and Anakin's. There was an unprecedented sense of Force attunement in that darkly-clad man, the clothes fitting close to the body to allow freedom of movement, while dark braids hung down his back. A staff as long as he was tall rested easily in one hand, and neither Jedi could see any other weapon on him.

Blue eyes pierced the distance between them, searching both Jedi over with an intensity that was striking, but the masking cloth obscured the lines of the face.

Anakin looked to his Master, having torn his eyes from the woman he dreamed of to that stranger. There was something about that height, the confidence, and those piercing eyes that shook up distant memories. If he was feeling it… no, Obi-Wan was not unaware. The Knight had jerked his personal shield in tight, refusing the wave of Force-carried support from Anakin.

//Like always,// Anakin thought briefly, before refocusing on Padmé.

"Greetings, Senator Amidala," Obi-Wan said smoothly, as if his heart hadn't pained him with the grief of his greatest loss. "The Jedi Council sends its regards, and wishes us to assist your staff in performing security. It is known that you are here to attempt to further search of a peaceful ending to the strife plaguing our galaxy."

"Knight Kenobi, the Jedi Council is generous." She turned her head slightly to take in the gangly, tall Jedi. "Is this Ani?" she asked, to confirm what she already knew.

The boy blushed, ducking his head for that old nickname. "Yes, Senator."

"My Padawan and I are ready to confer with your security," Obi-Wan said, before that could go any further than a simple greeting. Let the boy flirt, or attempt to, on his own time.

"Sabé will be my coordinator for this," she answered, indicating one of her handmaidens. "My bodyguard will remain close at hand with me, for now." She then walked to the bedchamber, followed by the silent man. Obi-Wan felt a flare of … jealousy? … yes, jealousy from his Padawan, and had to release his shielding enough to send a silent warning. Anakin stilled himself, and they moved on to see what might be needed to keep the Senator secure.

* * *

Inside the bedroom, Padmé let Jiné help her remove the heavy headpiece she wore, then turned to look up at him.

"Are you well?" she questioned, knowing that had to have been difficult. Why that pair, she wondered, given that the Jedi should have known she would have him with her.

"He has grown up into the man I foresaw," the tall man said with slow deliberation in his words. He had not liked the flow of Force between Master and Padawan; it did not have the seamlessness he remembered between himself and Obi-Wan. That could pose a problem, given that the Chosen One needed to be safe-guarded on all levels from temptation.

"You will go to the Temple?" Padmé questioned, offering her blessing on such a path. He shook his head slightly. 

"Not immediately. I will need to be certain you are safe first, and then seek them out quietly."

She rested her hand on his face, through the cloth, the only comfort she could offer that he would accept. "As you will, my friend."

* * *

"That big man…"

"Anakin, don't start," Obi-Wan said firmly.

His Padawan ignored him, an increasing habit of late. "He was shrouded in the Force, master. I felt it clearly, as if he was a magnet point for it."

That actually wasn't the tack Obi-Wan had expected, and it did bear conversation. "He did. I was unaware Naboo could produce such a strong Force-Sensitive that was not identified to the Council. Or perhaps, he is one who was not allowed to come by his parents."

"Or an Initiate that never found a master to teach him?" Anakin asked, unaware of how close to home that would strike Obi-Wan.

"Perhaps," the Knight said after a long moment of silence. "No matter. Sabé is of the opinion that the Senator's bodyguard is well able to defend her in time of need."

"And without a blaster even." Anakin looked impressed. "I was foolish, in that moment," he acknowledged. It was not an apology, but it was something. Obi-Wan inclined his head in acceptance.

"Remember, she has walked a difficult path, and you have faced another. Whatever feelings you may have thought were shared between a boy and a girl, eight years ago, you might wish to try befriending her, instead of assuming she has been waiting for you to mature."

Anakin looked at his Master in surprise. "I thought you preached against attachments as rigidly as the Code demands, Master."

"Friendship, Padawan, is a needed guard for sanity in this galaxy."

//Then why do you hold mine at arm's length?// Anakin demanded, safely hidden deep in his soul where Obi-Wan could not feel it.

* * *

Jiné had only just set out into the night, moving by corridors and tunnels he remembered from too long ago when a figure melted out to meet him, cloaked in Jedi robes, and familiar to Jiné's senses.

"Master Windu," he said softly, so his voice would not carry.

"Master Jinn," the other said, falling in step with the taller man, but turning them away from the Temple.

"No longer. The Senator granted me a name from her family, Jiné Naberrie," he said roughly. "Am I barred from the Temple?" he asked outright, not letting it find purchase to fester alongside the pain of his long absence from the life he had known, from his Padawan, barred from seeing the man develop into the strong Knight he had seen earlier.

"It is better to maintain separation," Mace said firmly. "The Sith is, most likely, someone situated in power here on the planet. The Senator is at the center of a strong cabal to prevent war, and thus a target for the Sith. We wish you to maintain your mask, and not be seen as connected to us directly."

"Yet you, or Master Yoda, assigned Obi-Wan to her detail!"

The words were harshly spoken, revealing the core of the big man's pain at being turned away. Mace Windu knew, having been warned by Yoda, that this was very likely. "It was done as a mercy. And in hopes that you will find a way to avert the potential shatterpoint building between Kenobi and Skywalker."

"How am I to do that, if I am to maintain my anonymity?!"

Mace lifted an eyebrow in contemplation of the anger inside his old friend. "You will let the Force, not your emotions, decide how anonymous you must be to save them."

_Save them._

The need to protect Obi-Wan from ever knowing firsthand the betrayal and anguish of a Fallen student drove out the lonely, lost despair. Likewise, his conviction that Anakin was the Chosen One raised itself as a further shield.

"I will listen to the Force."


	3. Revelation

Obi-Wan rose from where he was trying to rest a breath behind Anakin. Together, they charged toward the room the Senator was in, lightsaber hilts in hand, but not ignited yet.

Inside the room, the large man was in battle, staff in one hand, other outstretched. Obi-Wan felt the Force flowing as Qui-Gon Force-pushed one assassin droid into the wall, before that staff whirled and the man turned neatly on his heel, using the momentum to crash the staff through the other droid's body just where the head unit connected. It fell with sparking wires, its head landing at Obi-Wan's feet, from the strength of that blow.

The motions…

All of Obi-Wan's skill in maintaining his calm demeanor were needed, even as Anakin did ignite his saber and plunge it into the one by the wall, careful to avoid the main processors.

How often had Obi-Wan seen the flowing, economical way his Master had fought multiple opponents? Yet, it was impossible! No matter the height of this man, the grace, the confidence! Qui-Gon Jinn was dead.

"Senator?" he made himself say, leaving Anakin to dismantling and recovering the processors of the droids, trying hard to ignore the patiently waiting poise of the big man.

"I am unharmed. They cut through the window. I believe I heard a speeder," she answered. Her bodyguard nodded, eyes pouring over the details of the intrusion that had brought him off his bed in the far corner of her chamber.

"Your bodyguard is most efficient," Anakin said, trying to see the man's face, but the darkness of the room worked against him. The braids were unclipped from the ornamental ring that had held them back by day, further adding shadows to hide his features.

"We will investigate what knowledge we can glean from the droids," Obi-Wan said, refusing to look toward the big man. He knew it was impossible. 

"We will go to my handmaidens' suite to spend the remainder of the night," Padmé said without a single sign of fear or stress from the attempt on her life. She drew the robe from her chair and put it on, waiting as Jiné gathered his coverings. Silently, he escorted her out, leaving both Jedi with an impression of power kept in check firmly by will alone.

"Master?" Anakin asked softly, knowing Obi-Wan was shaken to his core.

"Let's hope we can get surveillance footage of the speeder, Padawan," Obi-Wan said, rather than voice his unease.

* * *

Jiné did not sleep, once he had Padmé safely with Sabé. He took up a meditative pose in the common room shared by the women, and let himself reach back for the brief impressions of Obi-Wan in that small fight. His former Padawan had reacted to what he had seen on a deep level.

Obi-Wan suspected.

How could he not, when he had merely adapted his style from the lightsaber to the staff he carried? He refused to use a blaster, but while he was not a Jedi (and could he truly ever be one again?), he would not use a lightsaber, even if he had still possessed one. He could only assume his had been lost during the fight that had nearly killed him, as it had not been given back to him.

Which path was the correct one? Should he reveal himself to the Knight now? Or let events continue to unfold?

//Force, guide me.//

If Obi-Wan had found peace from the loss, could he destroy that? How could he face his former Padawan's reactions, given how poorly Jiné had reacted to being forbidden to leave Naboo until now? Did he want to learn that the emotions had been only passing ones, and Obi-Wan was more than healed from the loss?

Did Obi-Wan feel the broken bond as keenly as he still did? If he did not, Jiné did not wish to be a burden of emotional discomfort.

"I must find the path," he whispered, coming up from his meditation with no further resolution in his soul.

* * *

Obi-Wan found the time to go to the Temple while Padmé was in the Senate, as neither he nor Anakin were encouraged to be in there with her. The tall man was at her side, and one of the handmaidens… Dormé, he thought.

He immediately sought Master Yoda, finding him engaged with the younglings as usual. That meant he had to wait, and he took up a quiet spot in the room, watching them in their lessons. When the class was dismissed, Yoda made his way over, turning a guileless gaze upon the Knight.

"Troubled, are you, young Obi-Wan," Yoda said with certainty.

"Master, is there any way to learn the identity of a Force user that might have left the Temple at some point?" Obi-Wan asked.

Yoda made a noise. "Not any user you seek, I know. Senator Amidala's bodyguard. Your apprentice, came he did already."

Obi-Wan grimaced, but on the same hand, he was touched. The boy had actually investigated already? "I distinctly saw him use a Force-push in stopping the droids. And his style of fighting, it is similar to Ataru, if one were using a staff instead of a saber."

"Think you know, do you? This warrior, familiar to you." Yoda waited to see if Obi-Wan would pursue his thought fully.

"It is impossible for what my mind keeps trying to see, Master Yoda," Obi-Wan said with quiet dignity and careful control. "But it does make me curious how someone so in tune with the Force is not of the Order."

"Know you for certain this?"

Obi-Wan was startled, and then had to wonder which part of his words Yoda was prodding. "Is he of the Order?" he asked, rather than address his certainty that his Master was long since dead.

"Find out, yes, find out, Obi-Wan must." Yoda then turned away, leaving the Knight to cope with the storm in his soul alone.

* * *

"Is, ahem, your bodyguard in?" Obi-Wan asked Padmé late in the evening. Anakin was at his side. "I would like to address him on certain matters," he added. "Anakin would be more than capable of maintaining your security in the meantime." He hated that there was no name for the large man, that he had to refer to him as a position.

Padmé considered, then stepped back to allow them in. "I will ask if it is his choice to speak with you, Knight Kenobi." She turned and went to the bedroom.

"He takes his place with her seriously," Anakin commented, still disturbed by how close the man stayed when she had capable protectors in the form of her handmaidens.

"Mind your emotions, Padawan," Obi-Wan said in as low a tone as Anakin had used. After a long moment, the tall man exited the room, completely covered, his braids swept back as they always were by day. He made a wordless gesture to Anakin and then to the room before focusing on Obi-Wan. The Padawan quickly crossed the room, too quickly for Obi-Wan's peace of mind on not losing the boy to an infantile crush.

The large man then crossed to Obi-Wan, indicating the door.

"Right, this way," the Knight said, suddenly nervous. The body language was direct, not a wasted motion, always conserving energy instead of frivolously expending it. //Just like my Master.//

He guided the large man to the small conference room, as it had privacy from being seen into and was shielded from listening devices. There, he faced the man, noting the height difference was exactly as he remembered, and those eyes…

Those eyes haunted him. The right shade of blue, fierce and taking in everything without showing what thoughts passed behind them. The hair was the right color, save there was no gray that could be seen at the temples, and that was enough to make Obi-Wan certain he had jumped for a shadow of a memory. He took a seat on one side of the table, and the bodyguard took the other.

Then the man reached up and unclipped his face cloth, letting it fall to show that long nose, broken in a fight when he was younger, those cheekbones, and Obi-Wan felt his entire existence teeter on the edge of oblivion. That leonine face was the center of memories and dreams alike for Obi-Wan.

"Forgive me, Obi-Wan, for obeying the Council this time," the man said with a voice that was rougher, more edged, yet still very much the sound of strength that Obi-Wan had missed for eight years.

"I — I do not understand, Master."

At his words, those eyes closed, face wincing with pain. "No, not Master. They call me Jiné now, Jiné Naberrie, as Padmé adopted me into her kin-ties once I accepted the plan left for me. A plan I hated, yes, _hated_ for that it kept me from you."

Obi-Wan wanted to reach out, to touch this apparition of his past. He did reach for the bond, still broken and shrouded by death, and his face showed his confusion. "This cannot be."

"For eight years, I have wished that I had died that day, rather than play the part of a pawn in this shadow war!" Jiné growled, aching for the Knight in front of him, his perfect companion of so long, despite their arguments and debates. 

The younger man took a long, slow breath, pushing himself to find a center that had vanished. He could not, as he turned, time and again, to the severed bond that was death-final. He watched this effigy //it has to be a lie// move his hand as if to reach out, then make his hands be still, folding them in front of himself.

If he'd been wearing robes, they would be hidden now, Obi-Wan realized. Just like every time Qui-Gon Jinn had been in a negotiation, or merely waiting, invoking his patience.

"I saw you die," he finally said. "I held you in my arms, and heard your last breath."

Jiné gave a harsh sound at that. "You heard my first as well, when the trance I was falling into, waiting for you to end the fight was disrupted. You sent for Master Yoda, and he orchestrated this from it all!" That he had much anger, more than Obi-Wan had seen in years even prior to that fight, was evident, yet he was in control of it.

"The bond was severed," Obi-Wan said firmly, feeling the denial rising in his heart. Either the man before him was a lie… or the last eight years had been one.

"By him, to hide me from being discovered. To protect you from the need he felt for me to be kept from sight. He blocked you from knowing I had survived, and he cut our bond!" The large man shook his head. "The first year, I was in a bacta tank or mostly comatose. He had left his plan with Padmé — and no, Obi-Wan, I feel no anger for her part in this. She has done much to help me maintain a semblance of control as I came to terms with what had been done."

"Why?! Why this elaborate shell game?" Obi-Wan had to give voice to some of his pain, thinking of the eight years stolen from them, of the savage pain that was a severed bond.

Jiné flinched inwardly, and his face softened for a moment, his fingers opening briefly before he forced them to be still once more. "There were many paths opened that day, and Master Yoda saw three major roads. One, you and your Apprentice would fall. Another, only one of you would fall. The third was set so firmly in shadows that he could not see anything at all of the fates of any Jedi. He placed his hope on that one, on the idea that if he could hide an asset as firmly as the Sith was hidden from him that it would allow Light to prevail.

"My unexpected survival having been crafted by the Force itself, the fact I had first reacted to Anakin as the Chosen One: these were the things that pushed him in the direction he took, Obi-Wan. And, as he had seen Padmé predominantly in all three paths, he left me to her care, and bade me give myself over to her protection."

Obi-Wan swallowed hard against the nausea he felt, to hear that Yoda had masterminded such a plan, and the certain knowledge in his soul. "I consented to this plan, I must have," he whispered. "Master —"

"Do not call me that, Obi-Wan," Jiné said as firmly as he had ever chided Obi-Wan the young Padawan. "I am not truly a Jedi any longer, for what Master Yoda asked of me… was too much for me to bear, for a long time. My anger was deep, and it is only because I would neither disgrace you nor hurt Padmé that I held strong against it."

//Not a Jedi…// Obi-Wan could not wrap his head around that. He refused to accept it. "Yet you followed the plan set for you," he reasoned.

Jiné tipped his head, and the look in those eyes was full of sorrow, regret, and… more? "Obi-Wan, how could I have forced your sacrifice into meaninglessness by appearing, more than a year after you had, as you believed, seen me die?" he asked, his voice gone gentle as he asked it. "Better not to undo what good might come of it, than to cause that harm to you."

Those words, more than anything else of this, broke any resolve Obi-Wan had. His Master, his beloved Master, had done this for him, had endured eight years knowing that Obi-Wan had no idea… to protect him from the fallout. He dropped his head to hide his face from the man, hands in fists inside his own robes, as everything washed up into a wave of pain.

Now he truly understand Anakin's protests of things being unfair. He would trade every single gain they had made against the Separatists — and as that thought hit him, he froze inwardly. 

This was the way to Falling. This selfish track of thought, wrapped around the loss he, and Qui-Gon, had suffered, was made of the Dark Side. And Master Yoda had seen at least two paths where he could have Fallen.

"Obi-Wan?" 

The younger man looked up, and something in his face dissolved Jiné's ability to resist reaching out. His large hands unfolded and he placed them across the table, near to Obi-Wan, letting him choose to accept or reject the offer. After no more than half a breath, Obi-Wan's hands were both in the larger ones, holding on as if this was all going to vanish.

"We have to continue the lie," the Knight said, trying to keep his voice steady, and mostly succeeding. "You're here to flush the Sith out, and if we break the lie now… it might not work." At Jiné's nod, Obi-Wan swallowed and took a deep breath, two, before continuing. "After —"

Jiné's hand flexed strongly, and he leaned further in. "After, is yours… unless you choose otherwise, Obi-Wan," he swore.

"As if I could ever, in all my life, choose to not have you back," the younger man said, and this time, his voice did break, his Jedi composure completely gone from him. When Jiné moved, he gripped the hands tighter, but it was the older man coming around the table. Once there, he did pull his hands free, one coming up to cup the same cheek he had run a knuckle over in Obi-Wan's supposedly final memories of him.

"Obi-Wan." The way the name shaped on that rough voice made the Knight feel as young as Anakin all over again. "I have missed you."

That made Obi-Wan stand into his Master's space, pushing against that body that was garbed in form-fitted clothing instead of voluminous robes, holding on tightly as he closed his eyes.

"I have missed you every single day and night," he answered, and then Jiné's arms were around him. The galaxy could wait to be saved; for now, they had each other, even as the bond remained firmly dead in their minds. Neither could push it back open, not now, because capture by a Sith, of either of them, would allow that to be used against the other.

Someday, though, Obi-Wan swore that he would have it back.

* * *

Anakin was watching Obi-Wan when he came out of his meditation. That was nothing new; Anakin delighted in being too close when Obi-Wan was too distracted to notice him at first. What was new was the fact that Anakin was letting his worry actually show.

"Yes, Padawan?"

"Did you find out what you needed? He came back, and he was still so … spooky."

"Spooky?" Obi-Wan had to raise an eyebrow at that.

Anakin shrugged a little with one shoulder. "He radiates the Force, he's almost silent when he moves, and there's just this aura all around him, one that suggests tangling with him is more dangerous than a pit of Gundarks."

Obi-Wan carefully did not smile at that assessment, using the fact that it was Qui-Gon's anger causing that sense of danger to balance himself out. //Jiné,// he reminded himself, vaguely understanding why the man had refuted his original name. 

"I am at peace with the fact he serves the Senator, and will endeavor to work with him appropriately," the Knight told his Padawan. "Did you find a level of peace in being alone with the Senator?"

"Don't deflect me, Master," Anakin said, though his face softened at the mention of the woman. "I worry for you, as the similarities to Master Qui-Gon keep putting you more distant than ever from me," the boy said bluntly.

"Distant?" Obi-Wan's brow furrowed, as if he'd never thought of himself as being such. "I maintain as impartial a view of your skills and abilities as I can, Padawan; it is not distance."

"Which is why I am more often my rank within the Order than Anakin?" the boy pressed.

//He knows I was upset today, and is pushing me because of it,// Obi-Wan realized. It was Anakin's way, probing perceived weaknesses when he had something of his own he wanted. Only what was it this time, when Obi-Wan had already consented to allow him to work more with the Senator?

"Anakin, can we let this, whatever it is, go for the moment?" Obi-Wan asked in an even tone. "I do, actually, wish to hear of your time spent with the Senator." 

Anakin sat back, looking Obi-Wan over like he'd never seen him before. "You normally tell me not to tell you about my solitary adventures."

"I am hoping this didn't devolve to one of your adventures," Obi-Wan told him with a faint smile. It made Anakin duck his head, uncertain what to do with Obi-Wan, who had been so completely frigid since they took this detail, being more open, almost teasing.

"We talked. A little about me, a lot about her… and she told me some about the man. He's part of her family," Anakin said, watching Obi-Wan closely to see how he handled that. His Master merely nodded, but that was enough to take the pressure off Anakin's worry for the elder man.

//I am sorry, my Padawan, but I am not going to burden you with the truth. You've had to live with me in the aftermath of losing him for too long.// That thought took Obi-Wan into a new storm inside, though. Anakin thought him distant, and he knew now that he had never stopped grieving his Master, regretting things unsaid. 

"Anakin?" and he purposefully used the name, though he'd always meant 'Padawan' with affection. "I will try harder to not be distant, as you said," he told the boy. The look on Anakin's face was startled, wary, and hopeful all in one, as confusing a mix as that was, and Obi-Wan gave him another smile. "As long as you do not interfere with the Senator's work, feel free to make yourself available as her escort."

"I think her bodyguard slipped something into your drink, Master. You are not yourself," Anakin said, using humor to deflect the oddness of the situation. Obi-Wan laughed, and it felt freer to himself than any he had shared in the last eight years.

"Then I will have to ask him to brew another for me." He was not yet ready to face the anger in himself over the plan that had taken his Master from him, but he had hope that the separation would be as brief from this point as possible.


	4. Danger Averted

Jiné went out of his way to never truly show his ability with the Force when he was chaperoning Padmé in public. Finding himself pressed on all sides by the feeling of impending danger meant he had to risk opening to that presence, despite knowing the Jedi suspected the Sith's existence somewhere here, close to the Senate. It potentially was exposing himself to the enemy, but perhaps that would draw whomever it was out into the open.

The danger, however, was not so easily pinpointed. He shifted his free hand to gesture the warning sign to the handmaidens, along with 'eyes out', so they would know his senses were alert to danger. He scanned as surreptitiously as possible, trying to see… and his eyes went upwards into the catwalks.

That moment of realizing why the danger was environmental, was just enough for him to sweep all four of the women up against the outer wall of the corridor they were in, drawing on the Force to provide a shield for them. He could not protect all the bystanders, a regret for him to face later as the bombs brought down catwalks, windows, and part of the interior wall. Dormé had yelped, the only one of the four to make a sound, but she was the one Jiné interacted with the least. 

"We need to help —" Padmé began as soon as she had her wind back and Jiné had released her.

"No, Senator," Cordé said, for which the bodyguard was grateful. She would listen to her handmaiden. "We must get out of here, back to safety!"

"This time was known to be when many of use supporting peace would be in the building!" Sabé pointed out. "This has to be an attempt to undo our work."

Padmé gave one more look at the chaos, pain on her face in empathy for those trapped by debris. She then let herself be escorted, pushed ahead of Jiné's hulking form, her handmaidens arrayed in front and beside her. They hurried, with Sabé tapping out a distress code to the Jedi that worked with them.

* * *

"Jiné saw something that warned him," Padmé told the pair of Jedi, as the bodyguard had retired to the bedroom once they had arrived to take up security. "He has good instincts for danger, and must have noticed a device out of place."

"He swept us away from the main debris pattern," Dormé added. "We did not have time to do much more than get clear."

"Civil response was prompt. The death toll was low, Senator Amidala," Obi-Wan said, reassuring the woman that had tried to visit all of the families of those harmed or killed during the invasion of her planet. "Security forces found at least four devices, all low-yield explosives, placed in a pattern to cause chaos more than injury, we believe."

He did not show his concern for the fact that Jiné had to have used the Force, that he would now be exposed as more than just shrouded in the Force, but actively able to use it, if the Sith were monitoring the situation. He knew Anakin had to have seen it in the way the debris fell around the position Padmé's party had been in, according to surveillance. That too, if the Sith were truly placed near power, would betray Jiné.

"Do you wish us to stay closer, Senator?" Anakin asked impulsively. "We, or I, if my Master is busy, would not mind escorting you to your Senatorial business from now on." Jedi had been discouraged from being inside the Senate chamber itself ever since a protest against potential influence through mystic means had been raised. "I would wait patiently outside for you," he added before he could be reminded of that.

//The boy is going to flirt himself out of the Order,// Obi-Wan thought, but it was, in some small part, amusing. He'd gone through a phase, and then there was the burning love he'd never gotten past, but Anakin's fixation on Padmé had begun at such a young age that Obi-Wan did not know how to take it seriously.

"I believe we have no choice, Anakin. Thank you. And you, Obi-Wan." Padmé took a deep breath. "If those of us seeking peace try to have unscheduled meetings away from the Senate's meeting points, we will lose credibility, and look as if we are creating a power cabal. If we continue to go there, we leave ourselves vulnerable to more attacks like this." She faced Obi-Wan again. "Is this the work of the Separatists?"

The Knight shook his head. "We cannot tell at this time."

"Then, we shall have to rely on Jedi reflexes and danger instincts to keep us all safe, and pray no further lives are lost. We must continue negotiating peace."

* * *

Perhaps it was the closer presence of the Jedi, for Amidala and others of her political view, as Obi-Wan had requested Knights be assigned to key members of that delegation that caused a shift. Perhaps it had been a once-off attempt to sow dissension in their ranks.

More likely, the Sith were truly behind it all, and were regrouping due to the unknown Force Sensitive in the middle of their schemes. That was Obi-Wan's opinion, and one reason he was on edge, the longer the calm continued. This was made worse when he discovered that Padmé often had Jiné carrying messages for her. It made sense on one level; he had knowledge of how to move undetected on Coruscant that the handmaidens lacked. But on the other, it left Obi-Wan with nightmares of being so close to having his Master back only to lose him for all time on one of these missions. 

He made a point to trail the man one night, shortly after learning this, intent on telling him what should have been said so many years before. As good as he was, though, he lost sight of Jiné as the man entered a particularly narrow and labyrinthine set of alleys in the deeper sectors. Backtracking, Obi-Wan reached out, and tracked that sense of the Force which was unique to Jiné. He thought he was gaining on the man when he felt the disturbance up ahead and picked up his pace, heedless of who could see.

* * *

Jiné had promised Padmé he would get her latest message discreetly through to Bail Organa of Alderaan. That meant cutting through the deeper districts, which would also let him listen for any further disaffection, to feel the pulse of the people here on Coruscant.

He had not expected to have company, and had done his best to shake whomever it was following him. He didn't dare reach out with the Force too much, but he'd been living as a dedicated bodyguard for too long now to not sense the follower. Evasion came easily for him; he'd learned these parts of Coruscant while still a Padawan, working on the exhausting tasks his Master had set for him.

A ripple in that thought pulled at the sudden disturbance he felt in the Force eddies ahead of him, and he readied his staff. Something Dark awaited him, something that wished him ill. Had he been herded this way? It did not matter, as he made certain his thumb was near the actual activator of the staff. He rarely had call to turn it into an energy weapon, but his nerves prickled…

…and a red lightsaber lit the darkened area between the alleys that he'd come to. It was a small space, not much larger than a common room in a typical apartment, bounded by buildings and narrow openings to reach safety. Jiné could still retreat, but there had been precious few times in his life that he'd been willing to do so. The last time he'd faced a Sith lightsaber, he'd been carrying his own and had the best companion a being could dream of at his side, and it had still almost killed him. Yet he refused to fall back.

A lightsaber could be defended against with other energy weapons. But was Jiné in any shape to actually handle a Sith warrior? He would have to hope so, as he flicked the switch, and electricity hummed along the length of the staff. He had trained hard to be ready for such a moment, after all.

How ironic that his current weapon was molded after the design that had nearly ended his life, and had taken what he held most precious away from him. He stepped forward, the pale light of his staff blending with the red glow of the lightsaber… with a curving hilt that brought a million memories to mind, none of which let him comprehend that he had come face to face with the man he'd only just been thinking of before feeling the disturbance.

* * *

Obi-Wan rushed down an alley, and heard a sound he dreaded. A lightsaber igniting could only mean trouble, especially as he knew Qui -- Jiné would not be carrying such a thing. At a higher pitch, though, he heard a whine of energy, and knew that he could reach them, he just had to follow his instincts, the Force. Jiné was not completely defenseless to the lightsaber.

He burst out of an alley into the opening, lightsaber in hand and igniting as he cleared the mouth of it. Ahead of him, he saw the red saber of the tall, older man land on the staff. Obi-Wan couldn't quite make out the features past the well-groomed facial hair, but there was a tension running through Jiné's shoulders that was unusual in his fights.

Obi-Wan's entry sparked a change in that first clash, the Sith warrior managing to riposte off the staff, so that Jiné was pushed off line for a proper attack. Jiné did not remain in place, executing a Force leap and somersault, opening his space to Obi-Wan.

He brought his lightsaber to bear, and the red saber crossed with his blue one, giving a combined glow that lit the Sith's face completely.

"Dooku!" Obi-Wan said in surprise. 

"Kenobi, isn't it? A pity you intruded here, boy. Your Master spoke highly of you, but I can't let you report back, you see."

Jiné pressed in then, cutting off further reply, as he used his staff to draw and keep the Sith's attention. He could not let himself think on the man's identity, could not risk losing Obi-Wan now.

"You are the one who will not walk from here, my old Master," Jiné said, his voice harsh but recognizable to the one who had heard it raised countless times in adolescent anger and impatience.

"Qui-Gon!"

//This is suicide; a staff cannot defeat a lightsaber!// Obi-Wan thought desperately, working in alongside Jiné to add his strength and speed to the fight…

… and he felt the full slam of a rib-breaking Force-push launched his way, throwing him all the way across and into a wall. As he hit, his hand released his lightsaber, and it snapped off, falling to the ground ahead of him.

"They said you were dead, my padawan. I found the Council's actions inexcusable, as I so often had in the past," Dooku was saying when Obi-Wan could hear anything over the rush of blood in his ears.

"Qui-Gon Jinn is dead, but your words will get you nowhere, Dooku. You wield a Sith's saber, and you threatened someone of mine!"

Obi-Wan looked and saw the staff was actually working well against the lightsaber. He tried to get up, tried to rejoin the fight. Those words echoed in his ears, though, Jiné claiming him as his own.

"Have you finally replaced compassion with possession, my padawan?" Dooku asked with a laugh. "I told you that the compassion would see your end. Perhaps there is still room for you to grow, perhaps -- "

His words were cut off as Jiné launched a furious set of blows with the electrified staff, forcing the Sith to keep up a steady defense. If Obi-Wan could just make himself move, they could do this as partners.

Dooku warded off several blows, and then pulled tiling down off the nearby roof, pelting it at Jiné with his control of the Force. Obi-Wan heard the grunt that escaped the warrior, but Jiné shifted which hand was controlling the staff and punched with his free hand when he had Dooku's saber shoved far to the side. It staggered Dooku back, and more, cost him his fine Force control for moving items, at least for the moment.

Breath coming back to his chest at last, Obi-Wan made it to his feet, calling his lightsaber back to him. He thought he understood the changes in Jiné's style, making use of both ends of his weapon, and he fit himself in on the side. In the past, Qui-Gon had often defended, letting Obi-Wan be the aggressor. This fight, though, like the last one they had shared, there was no room to trade off, and both men pressed their opponent hard.

"You cannot win, my padawan," Dooku said, even though he was showing the same sweat in the gleam of the weapons that kept falling into Obi-Wan's eyes, stinging them. "The Dark Side is far more powerful… something you can feel, can you not?" he taunted, well aware of the anger burning in Jiné.

Obi-Wan risked a look at his partner in this fight, seeing the eyes were set hard and boring into Dooku with an unworldly intensity. //No, Master, don't… I can't get you back just to see you Fall again.//

"It is not more powerful, only easier to slide into, killing off your very self in the pursuit of power," Jiné spit out with disappointment at Dooku. He shifted his feet a certain way on his next attack, and Obi-Wan had no time to think once he'd made his own pass, a leap up with a kick to try and keep the master duelist off rhythm. 

Could they do this, without the bond between them? Obi-Wan knew that footwork plainly; they had done this before, when Obi-Wan had lost his saber, but been in better shape for a fight. They would push their opponent once together, and then exchange weapons as the opponent recovered.

There was no bond… but there was the Force. It flowed and eddied stronger around Jiné, and Obi-Wan could follow that. 

He did another leaping cut, even as Jiné used a low cut to the legs, buying them both space, and Obi-Wan let go of his weapon, while calling to the strange staff with his abilities.

The lightsaber was in Jiné's hands then, and it met the attack coming for Obi-Wan. Despite the saber being smaller than his own had been, and much smaller than his new weapon, Jiné launched into a full Ataru offense. The strength and speed of the blows increased, and now Obi-Wan found he could just use the staff to defend, protecting the holes that Ataru by its nature had.

"You have become powerful, but I am more powerful yet!" Dooku yelled, and he whirled away in a trio of parries that gave him some distance, bringing his hand up.

"Lookout!" Obi-Wan cried, feeling the air sizzle and crack as lightning shot out… and Jiné caught them on the lightsaber's blade itself.

"I have done nothing but study the Sith as I retrained myself, Dooku," Jiné said, eyes gone narrow. "And I am tired of this fight!" With that, he pressed in, switching to his old master's very own Makashi style, forcing Dooku into the duelist's rhythm. Obi-Wan couldn't even get in edgewise as they traded blows, parries, and ripostes. 

He tried to stay close, looking for an opening. When he saw one, though, it was in his Master's defenses, and every single part of Obi-Wan needed to scream out loud, trying to find the way to take over the fight.

Jiné moved impossibly backwards, under the thrust from Dooku, and came back up, already inside the guard, with Obi-Wan's lightsaber plunging up from abdomen to ribs and out the back.

"Pad… a… wan…" Dooku managed to say, half-surprised, and shockingly, half-proud.

Jiné fell to his knees as the body dropped, life gone from it on that last exhaled syllable. Obi-Wan's saber switched off, and only the staff remained to light the battle scene.

"Mas… Jiné?" Obi-Wan asked, hating that he could not directly feel the man. For answer, the big man turned, holding the saber's hilt out to his former student. 

"He may have died a Sith, but I ask you to see to his body," Jiné said hoarsely. He reached out his other hand to take back the staff.

"Of course I will," Obi-Wan said, confused by all he had just seen and helped with. "You are… better than I have ever seen you," he said in awe.

Jiné's eyes were bitter above the face mask. "I told him the truth, Obi-Wan. I have been true to the path Master Yoda forged for me, learning all I can about Sith fighting styles and tricks." Using the staff, the big man made it to his feet. "I regret having to use your blade, both because I should not use one, and because I had no choice but to kill with it. But necessity doesn't always allow for honor."

//You are the most honorable man I have ever known!// Obi-Wan wanted to scream at him, but he merely lowered his eyes, finding his comlink in his robes. By the time he had alerted the Temple to his need of assistance, Jiné was gone.


	5. Reclamation

Bant and Reeft backed away and then turned, leaving the body and Obi-Wan with Master Yoda. The Knight knelt down to pull the robe back and reveal the face. He had not told his friends anything, only telling them it was a matter for Master Yoda. Luckily, neither was the kind to press him once he declined to talk.

"He was wielding a Sith version of his lightsaber, Master," Obi-Wan said. "I am sorry for his Fall." He would not apologize for the death.

Yoda closed his eyes, saddened. Yet, Dooku had always had an edge too close to darkness. He had renounced the Order after Qui-Gon's death had been announced. "Perhaps expected this should be. Glad am I, Obi-Wan, that you survive."

"Jiné was first to engage him. He carried out the end as well, with my weapon." Obi-Wan drew in a deep breath. He had much to say but not the right words for it. "He doesn't carry a lightsaber. He says he is not Jedi, regretted having to use mine, Master Yoda!" His pain over this came through more clearly than he wished.

Yoda reached down to cover Dooku's face, then used his ability with the Force to move the body from between them, leaving the litter closer to the door so he could take it for its final disposition. Later, he would deal with the emotions of a Fallen Padawan. Now, he had to deal with the feelings of an excellent Knight who was grief-ravaged all over again, because of Yoda's own decisions.

Why would these younger Jedi not learn that attachments were a step upon the wrong path, nearly always? How many times in Yoda's life had he seen danger spiral into reality because a Jedi placed one person above their duty?

"Choice to remain within the Order, it is given to all," Yoda said after a long moment. "Sad should he leave, yes, sad, I would be." He sighed heavily. "A hard path I made for him, for you, I did." He needed to mend this. That Qui-Gon Jinn had chosen to do as planned, but rejected the Order in the doing, was not anything Yoda wished. Was there a path between losing Jedi, and these emotions that overwhelmed them?

"How can I fix this?" Obi-Wan asked with barely controlled anguish. 

"Have you your master's lightsaber still?"

Of course they both knew he did. Obi-Wan had used his Master's saber until he took Anakin to Ilum for constructing his first lightsaber. At that time, Obi-Wan had created one of his own. Rather than relinquish the lightsaber to be held by the Order, he had kept it in his quarters, the quarters he had kept that he'd finished growing up in. Nothing of Qui-Gon's had been removed, and the lightsaber held a place of honor there.

"Do you wish it?" Obi-Wan asked, hesitating only a moment. Yoda nodded.

"To me, bring it, as I see to my student."

* * *

The request for entry was met by one of the handmaidens, and Yoda didn't really need to touch the Force to fill the polite but chilly impression.

"You may enter, Master Jedi," she said, moving aside to allow Yoda entry. Within, Senator Amidala met his eyes with stately grace, a wall of impassive calm in front of his senses. She was strong, and he was certain the wisps of Force Sensitivity he had detected had been honed by Qui-Gon Jinn in the time he had lived with her.

"Master Yoda, to what do we owe this visit?" she asked, using her political, toneless voice.

"Wish to speak with your Guardian, Senator, why I have come."

"Wait here." Padmé rose and went to the bedroom, letting the door close behind her. The handmaiden waited, anticipating that if Jiné agreed, she would need to take Padmé to their quarters. "You heard?" Padmé asked once she was alone with the meditating warrior.

"I did. I had sensed his approach."

"You did not come out. If you wish, I will send him away," Padmé said, coming close enough to rest a hand on his shoulder, both of them facing the outer windows, so she could see his face in the reflection. 

He closed his eyes, but brought one hand up to touch hers. "No, I will allow the meeting. I… did something that may have caused him some discomfort."

"The fight last night?"

He turned his face up to her then, shaking his head. "You are very perceptive, my friend. Yes, in connection to the fight. I will go with him to the conference room I spoke to Obi-Wan in, so Dormé and you can continue your game."

He lifted his mask up to attach it, covering his features, and then took his staff from beside him, using it to push to his feet. The battle against his own Master had taken much from him, but the day's food and rest and meditation had helped greatly. When he was up, and towering over her as usual, he smiled briefly beneath the cloth, knowing she wished to say more.

"Don't allow him to hurt you further, Jiné, or I will forbid him access completely," she said with steely resolve.

"As you would have it," he answered that, before going out to join the Grand Master of the Jedi. Yoda hadn't really changed in his eyes, other than now being a symbol of all the pain of the last eight years his former Padawan had endured. His own suffering barely mattered, but that of Obi-Wan was a crime in his eyes.

"A new name you have, I am told. Greetings, Jiné Naberrie," Yoda said, omitting the title and true name of the Jedi, until he could handle this matter of anger and pride he saw beneath the choice.

"Greetings, Master Yoda," he said flatly. "We shall walk, and talk in privacy," he added, moving to the door with little regard for Yoda's shorter steps. The Master did not sigh, but followed along to the waiting conference room.

Once inside there, the big man chose not to sit, standing against the far wall and regarding Yoda with cold eyes.

"Much anger in you I sense," Yoda said to lance the festering wound, as he saw it.

"Yes, and I am not going to listen to your lecture on it. I know the line, and guard against it," the human said, while Yoda felt the truth of that.

"Ahh, Master Windu's path you have found."

"No, I have found my own."

The ancient Jedi sized up this student of his own student, remembering the long years and all their trials. Dooku had said it would be compassion that undid the man when they had parted as teacher and student. Yoda had been of a similar mind, given how strongly Qui-Gon invested himself in those around him.

He had not suspected it would ever lead to this, even when he crafted his plan out of desperation to protect the Republic.

"Dark times, they press upon us. The Force showing us a way, it did. To save many lives, hard choices made," Yoda finally said. "Placed faith in your strength, I did." He kept his gaze evenly on the human's eyes. "Remains strong, that faith." He moved his robe to the side and pulled the large hilt of a familiar weapon from his belt, setting it on the conference table by use of the Force, so that it was nearest to the human. "Yours, this is. Many Consulars have we. Guardians, we need."

With that, as the human was stonily silent, Yoda left to return to the Temple. He allowed himself hope that the Master he had known would set aside his emotions and return to the fold, but he could not force it.

* * *

Jiné meditated on his bed, the lightsaber sitting across from him, a reminder of what had once been his life. He could feel the sleeping presence of his friend, the woman who had reached out and kept him tied to sanity long enough to find his path. She represented the now, a present he lived in fully. He was committed to protecting her, driven to find the true Sith.

His heart and the Force both said it was not Dooku. He might have been used, might have been the new Apprentice, but even a cursory review of events on Serenno made it clear that Dooku's involvement was recent. The way the Force swirled around Padmé's involvement in the peace process made it too clear to him that staying close to her would help lead him to the Sith.

What would be after, assuming he survived it? He'd promised Obi-Wan that would be his, if he chose it. His mind whirled around a stubborn Initiate's face blurring into a concerned young man's, with that fading into the bearded Knight he had found here on Coruscant.

His Padawan was a good, strong Knight, likely to make Master all too soon. He was a Jedi to his core, never having been given to the incessant questioning and defiance. Jiné could never ask him to leave that, but could he rejoin the Order in good faith? Would Jiné's future be as empty of that one bright point in his existence as it had been these last eight years?

He focused again on the lightsaber. He'd carried this one for a long time, and even now, the crystal within it sang to his senses. It knew him for who he was, even if he had thought he had truly buried Qui-Gon Jinn in the past. Would he have to revive his past, to find any kind of peace in his future?


	6. A Name for Danger

"Chancellor Palpatine," came from the common room, while Jiné was still in his place in front of the windows. He had been pushing at a swirling in the force, trying to determine what it was that felt so wrong this day.

"Senator Amidala… Padmé, if I can be so presumptuous," the man said in a fatherly tone.

Why did it ride at the back of Jiné's nerves to hear it? He'd met her family, when she went on a rare retreat, and had nothing but respect for the Naberrie family. This man, though, who had ridden the wave of sympathy after a tragedy into the highest office left him vaguely discomfited. 

All three handmaidens were in the common room. It was why Jiné could linger over his morning rituals.

Why did that seem so important?

Was there a threat?

Carefully, he touched only the Living Force, as he often did. The Cosmic Force rang loudly for most Force Sensitives, because they knew to listen for it, but the other half of the duality was so omnipresent, that it was tuned out, unheeded. For Jiné, though, the Living Force was his guide, the part he had devoted himself to for decades.

There was a shadow swirling within the Force, and it was all he could do to stay where he was, silent. His staff was at his side, but almost without thought, he looked to the lightsaber, still resting on his narrow bed. His ears remained on the conversation in the common room, hearing as the Chancellor tried to steer the conversation to a point where Padmé would call for her guard to join them. 

"I merely wish to reward this man who has guarded my home planet's precious treasure," he said.

"I am sorry, Chancellor Palpatine," Padmé said carefully. "He is resting, and I have need of him to be ready later this night, to accompany me when my handmaidens are retiring for their rest." Her tone was firm, and the shadow deepened a moment.

"Do bring him with you, my dear, the next time you find yourself near my offices. I owe him a debt for his actions," the Chancellor said smoothly. "Ahh, I do need to go. Matters of state. Please, visit soon."

Jiné waited until the shadow he could sense was far from their quarters, then emerged to see the women already touching and inspecting every surface that was touched. He blinked and then caught Padmé's eyes to see her brief smile at him.

"Training me to listen to the Force, what little I can manage, let me conclude you did not trust him, which is why you did not come out," she said, even as she continued. He had to smile for that; she was only Sensitive, not an active user, but she had been adept in her studies.

"I need Knight Kenobi," Jiné said. "On his next arrival here."

"Of course, my friend," she answered that.

* * *

Obi-Wan looked at the tall man as if he had turned into a Hutt right in front of his eyes.

"You cannot be serious."

There was a flare of temper, yet when had Obi-Wan ever failed to question him? That thought brought a pang to his heart, more than enough for him to reign in the temper.

"I may only tell you what I felt in the Force," Jiné told him firmly.

"The Chancellor has been decisive on all fronts that he can push, safely, without undoing his reforms, and he has been in the presence of numerous Jedi over the years. I find it very difficult to believe that he could be Sith-connected, let alone _the_ Sith," Obi-Wan argued. "Anakin is often his choice --"

As he said it, Obi-Wan's eyes flared wide. He had no qualms with the Chancellor in his role, but how often had Anakin begun his arguments with 'but Chancellor Palpatine suggested'.

Jiné's face told him all else he needed to know on that front; the Chosen One had been in frequent company of what might be their enemy?

"We could be wrong," Obi-Wan protested weakly. That he said 'we' made Jiné feel a touch more sanguine on the matter.

"Obi-Wan, what Padawan, Knight, or Master works inside the Living Force as I do? There are still those who deny that it is useful at all. How would a Sith know to guard against detection within it, as they would have to with the Cosmic Force?" The large man reached out, resting his hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder, just as he had on so many other perilous missions. "He was a disturbance within it for me, and pressing hard to actually see me. We know I revealed my Force abilities during the bombing, but that could be the mark of an Adept. They exist and sell themselves to the highest bidder.

"But for the timing of the visit to come after our encounter with the Sith, it all looks to me like we have upset his power balances too abruptly for his liking," Jiné said.

"You will not be safe," Obi-Wan said with a frown.

"None of us are, my young friend," the warrior said. "But if Anakin has been exposed, it is more necessary than ever to repair the damage I sense between you and your padawan."

"Master!"

The word slipped out as an involuntary reaction to that age-old familiar bluntness, and Obi-Wan regretted it instantly, for the storms that it brought to those eyes watching him. He saw Jiné's mouth tighten, a moment before the man walked away from him, turning his back in the narrow confines of the kitchen they were having this conference in. The loss of the hand on his shoulder hurt like a physical sensation, as well as the emotional storm in front of him.

Qui-Gon Jinn had been a man with passion, but he'd mostly kept it in check behind a Jedi veneer. This man his Master had become was far more visibly… human.

"I'm sorry. You will always be that, to me, and I know Anakin and I do not have the rapport I shared with you, but… I was never the right choice for him."

"You were the only choice, had I truly died that day," Jiné told him in a harsh voice. "Even if I did use your very attachment to me to press for you to take him on, there was no one else I could trust to save him!"

"And I do not regret anything, but the idea that I might very well have failed you, if Anakin is being courted by the Sith," Obi-Wan said quietly.

The larger man whirled back to him on those words. "Any failure in this situation is on my own head, Obi-Wan," he said, much softer, more controlled. "You were more than ready to be a Knight, but how had I ever prepared you for handling a Padawan that was far from conventional, with attachment issues from the beginning?"

Obi-Wan's throat grew thick, but he answered anyway. "I only needed to look to our past, for those answers… and maybe that is why I held him at a distance. I knew what it was to fall into one person, and thought I could protect him better if I never gave him reason to learn it firsthand."

There was half a moment when Obi-Wan could almost regret those words escaping him.

The next beat of his heart found Jiné's arms enfolding him close, tight and hard, as if an embrace could guard the truth that hovered between them just a little longer. 

"I'm sorry, my Padawan," Jiné whispered softly against the Knight's hair. Obi-Wan could not help the hitching sob against that broad chest, to hear those words. He had no answer for them, other than to stay held firm in those arms.

* * *

Padmé's eyes went wide as Jiné stepped out of the bedroom. They'd had a long day, and he had left the safety of her and the handmaidens to the pair of Jedi, remaining alone.

Now she saw why.

His hair had been unbraided, washed of its waves from the tight bindings, and then gathered in the very style she remembered from his rescue of her years before. He was dressed in the tunics and leggings common to the Jedi, and had the robe over it, still open.

At his hip, the lightsaber was further testimony to his decision.

His eyes reached out to her, seeking her reaction… which came as she launched herself to him, heedless of her state robes, to hug him hard and long.

"This can't be easy for you," she murmured.

"No, but necessary, for me to speak to the Council. I will keep my head covered, and hopefully evade the spies, but _they_ must listen to me as one of their own." He kept her held tight, dipping to brush a kiss across her hair. "You will keep all three close, remain out of the rooms with windows, and bar the doors to them?"

"I will." She knew he was aware that all four women were capable fighters, but it would ease his worries while he was out. Their Jedi were stationed on the lower level, and Jiné did not want Anakin in with her until the Council had been warned. "I still believe Anakin is not the risk you see."

"He may not even be aware, given what I have learned of Sith abilities to cloud minds. I will protect him, Padmé, as I protect you and the Republic in this." He let go and she eased back.

"Come home to us, Jiné; I do not wish to grieve my friend."

"It is only a meeting," he assured her.

* * *

"A visitor for us, we have," Master Yoda told the members of the Council that were present. Depa Billaba, Eeth Koth, Mace Windu, and Shaak Ti nodded impassively, while Plo Koon and Oppo Rancisis looked interested. The other members of their peerage were far from the Temple, acting on various other threads in this web of evil threatening the Republic. "Calm, I urge upon us all. Consideration owed for the words said this night."

With that, Yoda made a gesture and the door opened to admit the visitor. His presence rippled along the awareness of all seven Council members with a deep connection to the Force. Once the door was shut, and the cloaked visitor was standing in the center of the chamber, he reached up to sweep his hood back. Though his face was bare of the distinctive beard he had kept from his Knighthood until his near death, none failed to recognize the imposing figure of their maverick Jedi Master.

Surprise and shock prompted quiet whispers, which he waited for. Yoda cleared his thoughts, then coughed to bring eyes to himself. "Three nights ago, Master Jinn faced a Sith Warrior, here on Coruscant. My former student, Dooku, it was. Master Jinn prevailed, and has news to consider, we must."

"I was forced to use more of the Force to perform my duties for Senator Amidala previous to the battle that Knight Kenobi and I both faced against my former teacher," Jiné stated. "I believe that is why the Sith was here, to find and possibly kill the Force-user that was protecting her. In defeating him, I believe we, Knight Kenobi and I, have made the Sith master reveal himself, and we are in dire straits, Council Members." He looked each one in the eyes, seeing how each one was taking in his presence, his words. "I never hid that I pursued the Living Force as my course of study, once I had been Knighted. Many were skeptical of this path, but it is the reason I am both still alive, and as you see me now. It is also why I am certain I have discerned the Sith's identity."

"I am intrigued how the primitive side of the Force can do what the higher mysteries cannot," Eeth Koth said, but his tone was passive, not attacking. Even still, Jiné bristled slightly inwardly… and kept his calm outward demeanor. Only Yoda was attuned enough to feel the anger.

"All of you are accustomed to muting the background noise of life," Jiné pointed out. "It is of a necessity, here on Coruscant. Deep meditation is not possible outside of the Temple on this world. Because of this, none of you were truly looking for the shadows the Sith cast into the Living Force. I probably would not have seen it, if he had not been isolated and only contrasting against the lives of people I trust explicitly. 

"I was surprised on why the Chancellor would wish to meet me, some several days after I had protected Senator Amidala, and coincidently after my encounter with Dooku, which only Knight Kenobi and Master Yoda knew of." 

"This cannot be!" Oppo Rancisis protested, expressing the shock many of them felt at the accusation.

"Even when I tell you that he has gone out of his way to cultivate Padawan Skywalker, filling his head with doubts on all that the Order stands for?" Jiné demanded. "His history from his planet, where I have lived these last eight years, is far from a story of dedication. His entire family vanished mysteriously. There are obvious holes in the political and civil registries from his youth. His rise to power has always come with exceptionally coincidental circumstances around it." He then spread his hands wide. "I do not have proof, only a pattern of behavior, and what the Force has let me see."

"And that seeing may yet guide us, Master Jinn," Mace Windu said, his voice hard and cutting off other protests. "Now, it is a matter of confirming, or denying, your words."

"We are stretched thin," Shaak Ti said softly, considering. "To find proof, if the accusation is truth, will be a difficult burden."

Jiné smiled. "The very tool he last used to gain his power is about to undo him, force him away from the power gained, and potentially force his hand in revealing himself. This is why I came tonight. While Senator Amidala will not be the mouthpiece of the call, there will be another vote of no confidence tomorrow. I am asking for the Jedi to discreetly be on hand, to protect the innocents from the backlash, if this Sith chooses to escalate suddenly."

"And if he does not, it will give us a chance to observe, to see if we are correct," Mace said, agreeing with the logic of the plan.

"There are so few masters in residence," Plo Koon said. "We will need all of the Knights and senior Padawans."

"Discreetly," Jiné stressed. "Every Jedi that is there must be able to cloak their presence and blend into a crowd, betraying nothing. Ones who cannot can be staged nearby, but we do not want to provoke a bloodbath!"

Yoda hid his own smile. Guardian that Jiné had become, there was still something of the Consular in his thinking.

"Tomorrow, you say?" Depa Billaba asked. "Which of the peace-seekers are asking it?"

"Not one of Senator Amidala's allies, but one who opposes the power balance shift, and the war." Jiné had to credit Bail Organa with working this out, aided by Mon Mothma. "Senator Garm Bel Iblis will take the forefront, on the basis that the Chancellor's inability to end the Separatist movement is beggaring many worlds, given the involvement of the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the Techno Union, making credit and goods difficult to come by, even on Core worlds."

Shaak Ti inclined her head. "Indeed. Such a platform would be embraced by a multitude of worlds. Your allies have planned well." She then focused intently on the Master before them. "And, on the chance Palpatine is innocent of charges? What redress will be made?"

He did not flinch from her gaze. "I will personally cross that bridge should it come to pass. But I believe, based on my studies, that any feint at thwarting his plans this close to an unexpected loss, will prompt his true nature to betray him."

"I will have padawans ready to observe, outside, far from range, to track his movements," Eeth Koth said then. "I will not permit them to risk direct encounter, but they can tell us where he goes."

Jiné inclined his head. "I must go now, to the Senator." He drew his robes up to cover his head, letting the shadows hide his face. The Council was aware, showed all signs of being on course with his plan, and now they had to wait.


	7. The Final Gambit

As a plan, it had been sound.

In action, it went as poorly as Jiné had anticipated. No sooner than the Corellian Senator put his motion forth than the Chancellor twisted all legalities into place to try and make the motion die in committee. Unlike Valorum, caught off-guard by the tactic, Palpatine was ready.

That alone warned Jiné that he was correct in his fear for violence. He was in chambers today as Padmé's assistant, clad back in the dark, close-fitting garb, his hair rebraided properly for Naboo customs. His staff was nowhere near, as weapons were, in theory, forbidden within the chamber. He did not worry, as he was on guard, and so were many other 'assistants' in the room.

He was uncertain if it was because he was already listening to the tension, feeling the Force as it milled through so many, or if he was just hyper-vigilant because of what was riding on this. Either way, he felt the clouded, no-life motion outside the chambers with a wariness that knew no bounds. 

"Get down, Padmé," he said firmly. She did, and freed the hilt of his lightsaber from the ornate dress she was wearing, all as the chambers doors blew inward. Over the screams, there were blaster shots from the droids and droidekas now invading the Senate. Trusting the Jedi present to do their best against the invaders, Jiné leaped from the platform they were in to the next, eyes set on where the Chancellor was. This massacre would not happen without him being held accountable, Jiné vowed, but the Chancellor was already making his escape. 

Could he prevent that? He called the Force fully to him, ignoring the danger of the droids, hearing more blasters than just the droids as Senators and aides joined the fray alongside the Jedi on hand, and concentrated on the door that led to freedom for the Chancellor and his guards. Centered, holding his lightsaber as a focus, Jiné reached out and _pushed_.

The blast doors slammed down over the portal, the controls sparking immediately after from the strength of Jiné's control, and he was in motion immediately. He didn't even think as he deflected the blaster bolts from the pair of guards with the Chancellor, idly hoping that Senators of a strong mind had seen the instant attack on him when the Chancellor shouldn't have anything to worry about but from the invaders.

* * *

Anakin had not been told to do anything more than keep his eyes, ears, and Force-sense out when he was assigned to work as uniformed security inside the Senate chamber. The sneakiness of the tactic did make him wonder what was afoot, but Obi-Wan was in the same uniform alongside him.

Then the Senate doors imploded and droids of military design poured in. Anakin barely even thought before bringing his lightsaber out of his sleeve where he'd hidden it. His saber work and Obi-Wan's were without compare among the Knight and Padawan teams currently in the Temple; honestly they were perhaps only exceeded by Masters Windu and Billaba working together. With his Master at his side, and his lightsaber in hand, he was certain he could take out as many droids as needed to protect the Senators!

Padmé was up there, after all, and he could not let the droids get anywhere near her. Focusing on that was far easier than coping with the emotional storm brewing over seeing his friend, the Chancellor, a man that had always taken time for him despite being busy to be his friend, at the center of a vicious political attack.

He was handling himself well, playing off of Obi-Wan's attacks and parries as much as setting the pace himself; they were a team and knew how to work their enemies over.

Then Obi-Wan faltered, his attention turned high and to the interior of the chamber.

"Master, **NO!** " ripped from the Knight, and Anakin was confused enough to let a blaster bolt hit the senatorial podium he'd been fighting from instead of ricocheting it back. He growled and launched into a Force-assisted somersault, disabling both the droids nearest them, and allowing him to see where Obi-Wan's attention was.

The big man, the one that Padmé kept close and called family, was leaping from pod to pod, toward the Chancellor. In his hand was a green lightsaber turned so casually in motion to deflect blaster shots back at the guards, and Anakin briefly saw a memory, of a big man with such a lightsaber facing a darkly tattooed man on the sands of Tatooine. He remembered the fight in the Theed courtyard and hangar, that same graceful confidence turning the lightsaber ever so slightly to bounce shots back at the droidekas, protecting Padmé and the rest of them.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Anakin demanded, even as he took off following Obi-Wan on an ascent of those podiums they could reach with Force leaps.

"Later, Anakin, later!" the Knight said with a desperate voice, trying to reach his headstrong Master before the battle could begin in earnest, knowing there was no human way to do so.

* * *

Jiné knew even as he made the ledge where the Chancellor was that he would be hard-pressed to make this fight just, focusing on the guards with their blasters. He would capture the Chancellor if it came to that, but there was a larger part of his soul wanting the man to take up a weapon against him.

One spinning attack had the first guard falling from the ledge at a well-timed kick, while the other's blaster was rendered useless by the green lightsaber. Undaunted, the guard interposed himself physically.

"Chancellor Palpatine, I suggest you submit to my custody, until this is all sorted out," Jiné said, forcing his voice as deep and resonant as he could, trying to end this, if the man was not going to bring a weapon to bear.

"I think not," the politician said, raising a hand. Jiné found his windpipe trying to close off, a vice-like grip of the Force, the Dark Side, trying to choke him to death. He had to bring his defenses up, pushing that grip away, as the guard broke out a vibroblade and advanced. 

To defend himself against the Sith's power and evade that blade would take more effort than a simple fight, but he could -- 

\-- and then the choking was gone, as Jiné's knee was jerked by the Force, taking him perilously off balance and forward, toward that vibroblade. He flicked his wrist, spinning the lightsaber in a risky move that had it out of his actual grip for a microsecond, and it took the hand with the weapon in it, before he gave a Force-push of his own, knocking the guard away from him. 

It wasn't as strong a blow as he needed, and the guard flailed out, screaming about the amputation, his still attached hand raking across the cloth covering of Jiné's face, revealing it to the Chancellor.

That simple revelation had a more profound effect than Jiné could have anticipated, as Chancellor Palpatine's eyes went narrow in hatred and loathing.

"YOU?!"

That venom, the hatred rising in the man's eyes, all of it clicked into place that this was the last piece of Yoda's plan. To have a Jedi lie be his undoing was anathema to the Sith. The Jedi were not supposed to be able to employ Sith treacheries so well.

"Chancellor, I suggest you stand down, stop this attack," Jiné said in a firm voice, on guard against any more Force pushes or chokes, using his knowledge of the countermeasures to weave a shield around him.

Palpatine cackled and then brought his hands both up, electricity lancing across the short distance between them. Jiné could catch some of it on his lightsaber, but the narrow ledge and use of both hands meant some got past his defenses, arcing through him, creating pain unlike any he had known before as the Dark Side energy flared in opposition to the Living Force that saturated his own body. He gritted his teeth, and raised the lightsaber in a two-handed grip, one palm out, one palm in, blade at shoulder height and parallel to the ground.

An ornate lightsaber hilt appeared in the man's hand, his political strategy of keeping his truth hidden falling away as his temper gained the upper hand. The red blade extended, and Jiné had to push all awareness of the rest of the fight around them away, completely. The Sith was an accomplished saber fighter, and Jiné could only liken it to fighting Mace, once Mace had mastered his style of Vaapad.

He knew in only a few passes that as good as he'd become that he was outmatched, and unlikely to have any reinforcements -- 

\-- and the ledge shook minutely as two bodies landed on it, creating a triangular formation around the man.

"Chancellor!" Anakin shouted, as betrayal rode high in his veins to see that scarlet blade, to feel the roiling anger up here around the man he had thought was his friend.

"Ahh, young Skywalker," Palpatine said in a particular tone, and Anakin's head felt more confused than ever before, making him dip his lightsaber some.

"Reinforce your Padawan!" Jiné growled at Obi-Wan, as his fears proved true. Anakin had been cultivated, laying suggestions in his mind, making it easier for the Sith Lord to manipulate him.

//How?!// was Obi-Wan's first panicked reaction to that demand, and then the fact it was Jiné saying it, after their stormy discussion about the past, that showed him the way. Trusting in Jiné's prowess to contend with the Sith's weapon for just a small while longer, Obi-Wan threw all he was down the training bond to his student. All of his fear at never becoming a padawan, all of his mistakes as one, even his insecurity between wishing to be a Knight and never wanting to let go of his Master, without fully understanding that, washed from Obi-Wan to Anakin.

Jiné pressed a furious attack pattern down on the Chancellor, keeping him too tied up in defense to use his tricks against either younger man. He had faith that Obi-Wan would reach the boy, help him find his path; all Jiné needed to do was buy them time.

The muffling sensation in Anakin's mind was cut in two as he latched onto that sudden, almost overwhelming realization that Obi-Wan had been more like him than he could have guessed. Worse, as Obi-Wan laid himself bare, Anakin could even see that the fear of loving was as deep as his own need to be loved, explaining so much of the distance.

A distance, Anakin realized, that had been fueled by the man in front of them, threatening to kill the very person he knew his Master loved.

" _No!_ " snapped out of his mouth before he launched himself into the fight, with Obi-Wan perfectly in sync beside him. 

Jiné shifted to a holding pattern with his lightsaber as the other two jumped into the fight fully, and used his ability to manipulate the Force to block Palpatine. It was almost more exhausting than the footwork and blade-work, but while the younger men were absolutely stunning in their teamwork, they had not trained for years to actively block Force manipulations the way Jiné had. All the theory, all the studying, all the practice against the handful of Force Adepts found on Naboo came to the fore, as he protected both younger Jedi. None of them would leave this fight unmarked, but Palpatine would not leave the fight at all.

The end came suddenly, as Obi-Wan had to fall back, a long shallow slice along his off arm making him have to regroup. The flare of pain flooded into his Padawan, as their bond had remained fully open to facilitate their ability to act in concert.

Anakin took a half-step toward Obi-Wan's side of the fight, spun rapidly, and let his lightsaber go high. The same moment, Jiné had been pressing tighter in, trying to buy his former Padawan time to recover. It was the right combination, by chance or by the Force's will, to put Palpatine in line for Anakin to take his head.

Anakin fell to his knees, almost in time with Jiné, and the pair looked at each other over the body between them.

"You are the Chosen One," Jiné said firmly. "Now, we will see where the balance begins, yes?"

Anakin nodded, before moving toward Obi-Wan to render aid, and Jiné surveyed the battle. It was all but over, and… well, Padmé had liberated a droid's blaster and was participating. As tired as he was, he actually considered leaving her to her own efforts, but he was her Guardian.

Without a word to either of the younger men, he began his descent, a combination of controlled falls and jumps, so he could reach her.

"Not much for goodbyes, huh, Master," Anakin said, binding the wound with careful hands.

"I hope there isn't one," Obi-Wan said truthfully. He then looked up at his Padawan, allowing the pride to actually show, alongside the affection. "You did well today, Anakin."

The young man flushed, slightly, and lit with a glow Obi-Wan hadn't seen in a long time. "You saved me, Master. Thank you."

"The gratitude runs in the other direction, from all of us," the Knight said, indicating the body. "One of the hardest things to do is to face one you thought of as a friend. Add in the power he had?" Obi-Wan bowed his head to the Padawan. 

Anakin was unsure of himself in that moment, and focused intently on the other wounds, more minor, that Obi-Wan had taken.


	8. Chosen Paths

The Senate was in an uproar, but more than a few reputable members had seen the lightning attack. There had been one, a Twi'lek aide, who had managed to set her recording drone on the fight to preserve it all from the moment Jiné defended himself against the vibroblade.

Too many aides and Senators, and a few Jedi, had died of droid-inflicted injuries. Padmé had been caught in a grazing blaster blow. Jiné, when he could take stock of himself, had four separate lightsaber wounds along his side and arms. Obi-Wan had the worst one; his arm would be days healing, and he'd taken two others beside it. Anakin had come away with six wounds, but none of them would take more than light aid to heal. His speed in motion had served to protect him from lengthy contact with their opponent's blade.

"I should have lost the arm," Obi-Wan said in amazement, having studied the way the lightsaber had come into contact with his skin. They were all back in the Senator's quarters, the men taking up the common room while the women were in the bedroom.

Jiné's face was a mix of absolute resolution and a faint smirk. "I learned, Obi-Wan, that one can use the Force to shield as much as one uses it to push. It is why I left the aggression to both of you, so that I could block his efforts to choke and to blunt the effectiveness of his lightsaber."

Anakin watched the two of them, trying to make sense of the fact that Obi-Wan was still firmly _there_ inside the bond they shared, and the two men were being polite, almost formal, in their words to one another. It seemed wrong to him, but Anakin also knew the whole world was askew for him. His soul ached to contemplate that he'd been a pawn for the man he'd just killed.

"Anakin," Jiné said softly even as Obi-Wan shifted to regard him.

"I don't have a bond with you," Anakin immediately said, feeling outnumbered.

"No. But I study people. And I wish you to know something," the big man said with more warmth than he typically showed in his voice. "I do understand if you have anger or grief for what happened today." His eyes showed the very personal storm of memories. "As Obi-Wan can attest, there have been too many betrayals in my past. And yet, we can't let it undermine the good we do manage for the people."

Anakin squirmed a little, still uncertain about being readable by others. He hated when the Masters did it, but this was Qui-Gon Jinn, the man that had freed him, the one that had given him a chance to reach his dreams. 

"It felt good, to have a friend, to have someone else to talk to," Anakin said softly. "I was so overwhelmed by it all, trying to adapt, and he… listened. He actually listened to me!" The anger was growing, making his voice rise, and Obi-Wan flinched. He reached out with his better arm, trying to touch the younger man's hand or shoulder… and Anakin flung himself closer, tucking in along Obi-Wan's side. "I'm sorry, Master, for asking more than you could give," he said, letting his anger melt into that sorrow.

"I should have tried harder, Anakin. In holding myself aloof, I did you a disservice, and I dishonored the very lessons I had learned the hard way with my Master," Obi-Wan told him, his eyes meeting Jiné's briefly.

"And what about you two?" Anakin asked, but he didn't stop leaning into Obi-Wan's side, or reveling in the fact Obi-Wan's arm was around his shoulders.

Jiné broke eye contact with his former Padawan at that question. "The future is always in motion," he answered, falling back on a Jedi platitude instead of facing the thorns of uncertainty. Anakin needed Obi-Wan more than ever, to overcome the Sith influence and betrayal. They were, at long last, making their bond something that was healthy.

He could not interfere in that.

"That future better be with us, then, Master Qui-Gon," Anakin said firmly, feeling more strongly about this than nearly anything else. "Because I'm not putting up with Obi-Wan Kenobi pining any more!"

"Pining?" warred with an incredulous "Anakin!" before the Padawan looked insufferably pleased at making them both react.

Obi-Wan turned his head to Anakin, half-glaring at him, but… wasn't that the largest part of why he had failed to move beyond grief? The fact he had never been on equal footing with Qui-Gon to make his heart known had eaten at him.

Yoda would be so disappointed in him, but Obi-Wan couldn't find it in himself to truly care.

It didn't help that Anakin was looking smug, feeling smug in their solid bond.

"His name is Jiné," Obi-Wan contented himself to say in mild correction.

"My apologies, Master." Anakin then looked to Jiné with amusement more than repentance. "I should use your preferred name."

Jiné inclined his head to that, but if he did officially re-embrace the Jedi Order, it would mean changes. Would it be so hard to fall back into the hard-earned calm of Qui-Gon Jinn, and let go the vigilant simmering of Jiné?

"I believe we have yet to know what that name will be, Anakin," the large man said in a quiet voice before leaning back and closing his eyes. Padmé was safely in the care of the other women, and he could rest, for just a small time.

* * *

"I feel like I am going to lose my favorite uncle," Padmé said softly, sitting on the edge of her bed, her protector beside her with an arm around her shoulders.

"I do not know yet, what I will do, Padmé. I lived my life on the Consular path, building myself up as a Negotiator. But these last years have seen me dedicate my life to the more physical protections, and that will not be easy to unlearn."

"You know the Sith better than anyone alive," she reasoned. "There will be traces for you to eliminate, I am certain, and you cannot do that from Naboo. Nor do you leave anything half-done." She leaned in against him, closing her eyes. "I just want you to find peace, Jiné, as well, and not bury yourself in duty."

He turned his head and brushed a kiss over her hair. "Duty is the way of the Jedi."

"Jiné, I have listened to you long enough to know that you, my friend, do not fit the cloth of the Jedi any more than I would."

He chuckled at that, but in the back of his mind, he knew it was true. What else was true was that Obi-Wan was a True Jedi to his core, and therein lay the problem.

* * *

Obi-Wan walked alongside Jiné as they left the Council chamber. He did not like the outcome of the long discussion between the Masters and Jiné, as it left a degree of removal between the big man and the Order.

"A special investigator at large, looking for Sith artifacts to be destroyed, as well as to root out any chance of other Sith-trained Force users," Obi-Wan slowly said. "It's an ambitious project, quite a lot for any one man."

"The Council did say I would be able to call on assistance as necessary," Jiné said impassively. He was wrapping his thoughts tight against his soul, not wanting to unduly influence this man.

"Come with me," Obi-Wan suddenly urged, turning toward the living quarters, rather than the gardens they had originally been approaching. Jiné inclined his head once, curious, but not pressing. He did not say a word when Obi-Wan brought him back to the quarters they had shared. Anakin was with Padmé, which insured they would have privacy. Inside, the common spaces showed signs of having a teenager in residence, but Jiné noted the small touches of Obi-Wan's sense of order.

He also saw a few trinkets from places he and Obi-Wan had visited in younger years, neatly tucked onto shelves. He did not let that weigh on him, at all, as he took a seat on the sofa. Obi-Wan moved past, going into what had been Qui-Gon's room. It took him a few minutes, but he came back, his hands folded in front of him inside the robes. He sat beside the the elder man, trying not to let his nerves get the better of him.

"Before you make your final decision on how best to embark on your new path, there is something I have to give to you, something that belongs solely to you." He drew his stronger hand out and held it out, holding something for Jiné.

He reached out, palm upward, and felt a coiled piece of cording be dropped into his hand. As he pulled his hand back, he saw it was no ordinary cord.

Obi-Wan's Padawan braid rested in the palm of his hand now. Each ornamental ring and stone he had given to the younger man had been worked back onto it, not just the ring marking the senior Padawan rank Jiné remembered most recently.

"I would not let any other Master cut it," Obi-Wan said softly. "I kept it in the same box I placed your lightsaber in, even knowing how much Master Yoda would disapprove of my wallowing in memory and not letting go of the grief." 

Jiné brought the braid close. Every training pair approached the braid differently, with some burning it as a symbol of breaking from the past. Others put them away, never to be seen again. Not all Masters wanted the braid; Dooku had merely dropped Qui-Gon's to the ground on completing the cut.

Obi-Wan had saved his, as he'd kept the saber, as he'd kept the few items they had found along the path of their shared journey. Obi-Wan, raised so firmly within the Order that he'd argued against many of Qui-Gon's actions and decisions, had clung to an attachment in its physical reminders.

Obi-Wan, who was watching him, face blank, waiting for a reaction, was all that Jiné could think of in the moment. He held the eyes of his former student and drew the braid to his lips, kissing it deliberately. He would never forget the sight of Obi-Wan's mouth parting slightly, tongue touching his lips in a true show of nervousness. Jiné could feel the cloudy ripples as Obi-Wan's divisive situation came to a full boil within him.

The Order preached against the attachments, as they elevated a person above all people, leading to a conflict in duty.

A Jedi was supposed to know themselves, fully, and be true to that.

What could a being do when the two were at odds?

"I will ask nothing of you, my former Padawan, that betrays who you are," Jiné said, taking pity on him. "For the gift of your braid, I thank you. It is a treasure to me, and a reminder of the best years in my life for me to carry." He turned his attention to the braid, crafting a loop at one end so that he could make a bracelet of it. 

"Jiné?"

The soft word pulled his attention from reworking a wire on the braid to make the loop solid. The large man looked up, and saw such pain and fear on Obi-Wan's face that he could not do anything but put the braid to the side and reach out.

"Don't leave me," Obi-Wan breathed in a far more desperate plea than he had meant to do. He was as emotional and overwrought as Anakin, for Force sake!

Jiné pulled the younger man into his space, turning so that he was stretching out along the sofa and Obi-Wan was atop him, held close in strong arms.

"Shh, shh," he soothed, keeping one arm around the Knight's ribs and running his other hand up into the thick hair that had grown in his absence. "Obi-Wan, I can do nothing to cause you further harm. If your need of the Order is too great to allow us this attachment, I will leave. But if you wish to have me close, I refuse to turn my back on you. It is, and always will be, your choice."

"I choose you," Obi-Wan immediately said, before he pulled himself up along that body and did what he'd been aching to do since he was sixteen years old by kissing the man that owned his heart.

For all Obi-Wan had dreamed of this, though, he was unprepared for the intensity of the return kiss. Jiné tightened the hand in Obi-Wan's hair, held him as tightly as he dared, and stole every taste of his former Padawan he could, reaching on instinct for the severed bond within his mind. Hitting that wall, that agonizing mute point in his existence, he growled, and pushed. His Obi-Wan was right here, in his arms, kissing him. 

::My own heart!:: He grasped the bond with all of his will, and pushed some of the healing energies that had given him a new life into it, demanding the bond renew itself.

Obi-Wan's moan of worry and desire mixed greeted the growl, but then he felt… a prickle. Something in his mind… and he brushed against the bond out of long-trained habit, to learn what had made his Master angry.

The bond had a pulse, and did not immediately inflict new pain on him. Obi-Wan gasped in their kiss, but Jiné brought his other hand up to tangle in his hair, holding him to the kiss. Obi-Wan moaned all over again as he latched onto the whisper of the bond, giving it his full consent and energy.

::yours/mine/always/never go::

Jiné's eyes flared wide open as that acceptance of the bond slammed fully through him, and he gentled his hold, his kiss. Finally, he pulled back enough to see his beloved friend. The lips were tantalizing, but the look of sweet surrender was by far the most beautiful balm on his soul.

"I have loved you for so long that I cannot remember not loving you," he told Obi-Wan. "First, you were in my care, and it would be wrong. Second, you were far more a disciple of the Code than I managed to be. I never could have burdened you."

"Loving you is part of who I am, and that means I'm just going to have to listen to the Force on this," Obi-Wan told him with resolve.

"What is it saying now, my heart?"

"That we belong together… and there are far too many layers between us," Obi-Wan said, with only a faint blush for what he'd just suggested.

Jiné laughed at that, but he took the invitation, and helped his beloved up, so they could remedy that issue.


	9. Epilogue

Anakin startled out of his doze as Jiné came into the chambers, and tried hard not to look guilty. Padmé did not stir; it had been the Force ripple more than any noise that alerted Anakin. The Senator was asleep, stretched out on the sofa, her head pillowed on the young man's leg. He took in the big man warily, hoping he was not in trouble, even as he realized there was a faint scent of soap, and the tips of his braids were damp. That was interesting, as Anakin had known him to be with Obi-Wan most recently.

Jiné merely raised a brief eyebrow, gave Anakin a reassuring smile, and came to lift the young woman gently. She made a small sound, but the Force-cocoon quickly wrapped around her was so reassuring and familiar that she settled back into sleep as Jiné carried her to bed. Anakin was readying to leave, reaching for the belt he'd taken off so his lightsaber was more in reach on the table, when Jiné returned.

"Don't go yet," he said softly, sitting in the space Padmé had been resting in. "I need to speak with you, somewhere you can give your honest opinion, where you need not fear Obi-Wan's impressions of your words."

"Master?"

Jiné sighed. "Do you call me that out of politeness, training, or because you wish to?" During the course of the evening, he'd steadily come to realize he was not going to win against Obi-Wan's often deeply-loving uses of the title.

Anakin shrugged. "All three, maybe? It is safest, as a Padawan, to use a title for respect. It is a courtesy we are told to never forget. And… I still feel gratitude to you, for opening my destiny to me. I think you could teach me a lot, as you taught Obi-Wan, if you were willing."

Jiné shook his head. "A Jedi is never done teaching. As Obi-Wan found out before I accepted him as a Padawan. I kept raising his hopes by giving lessons, while still refusing the match."

"He never told me that. But I felt it, when he threw the bond between us open at the fight," Anakin admitted. "There's a lot about him I didn't know, and only have an impression of because of that. Is that common, to know so little of the one who means the most in your life?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Jedi are supposed to learn from the past, but not linger on it. I used that as a concealing shield against Obi-Wan early on, a mistake he repeated with you." He held up his hand at the instant defense Anakin wished to mount. "No, he would admit that much to you as well. It is truth.

"What I need to know now, Anakin, is how you feel, in your own words, about the idea of me being near, as you continue finding your way with Obi-Wan." Jiné held the young man's eyes. "You have grown very strong in the ways of the Force, and from all I have seen, you will be an exceptional Knight someday."

"But not now," Anakin said, accepting that far more calmly than he might have just a few ten-days before.

"Obi-Wan was twenty-five before he ascended. And had not begun as Padawan until he was nearly thirteen. You began your apprenticing at near ten, and are only just now seventeen," Jiné said. "While age has nothing to do with it in the end, there is no slight, no insult in remaining on the Padawan path for so long as you and your Master need, to give the strongest foundation to the Jedi Master you will someday be."

"If you remain near to Obi-Wan, will you teach me too?" Anakin asked, after he had digested the full meaning of Jiné's words.

"I will give what lessons I may," Jiné agreed. He then changed directions completely. "You care for Padmé deeply."

Anakin dropped his eyes. "Attachments are forbidden," he began rotely.

"Then I, and Obi-Wan, are definitely violating the Code," Jiné immediately said, cutting that off. "Padmé is dear to me. There have been Jedi who left the Order for love, but I think the Order needs you, very much. The Jedi are still not balanced. We have been having so many who Fall, just in my lifetime. And I think, more than ever, that you are the true Chosen One, meant to help us.

"Which means, Anakin, that as long as you are honest with yourself as we go forward, I will do what I may to aid you in being true to yourself." Jiné reached his hand out, clasping Anakin's as the younger man let himself reach back. "There has to be a way to protect the Republic, to protect those who cannot protect themselves, without imprisoning ourselves in lofty towers far removed from those who need us."

Anakin could only stare at him for a long moment, before wrapping his other hand around their clasped ones. "Thank you… Master," he said, and Jiné knew the word had the full meaning of respect and choice.

* * *

"Changes, yes, changes. Come they will," Yoda said, eyes closed in meditation. He would not always like the changes, but the shadowed path had opened into limitless possibilities.

**Author's Note:**

> There are a number of threads to follow from here. time will tell if they get written.


End file.
